Football is Destroying Other Sports

FIFA seriously needs to do something about diving, or as you like to call it “simulating.” Now I am not the biggest football fan. To be honest my fandom extends to wherever Australia are playing internationals against sides that aren’t Oman or Vanuatu but I know that there is a big issue creeping into sport worldwide and I blame it on football.

To not only allow but seemingly encourage simulation is inspiring coaches and players from other sports to do the same. For it to be an actual tactic used in a sporting contest is beyond absurd. Sport and acting have and always should be mutually exclusive. Now we see in American Football, Rugby, Basketball and even Water Polo players staying down or even faking it to get advantages from officials. This was never in the DNA of these sports. It is seeping across sports from one source, football.

The worst place for it at the moment is here in Australia in the National Rugby League. The on field officials seemingly as blind as football referees are constantly missing illegalities in tackles but with the influence of the video replay and video referee they are staying down to halt play to give the referees time to observe video replay of it and award a penalty. Now there are so many things wrong with that that lie squarely at the feet of the National Rugby League, but the inspiration for this sort of behaviour comes from football.

These games are all beautiful in their own right and would be so much better without this in their makeup but football seems so absurdly backwards in its administration on this subject. In the same way that the NRL is using video refereeing to find illegalities, FIFA need to introduce to the big european leagues and international football, video refereeing, to determine when a player is diving and stamp it out. Not only for the good of their own game but for the good of other sports. Football will be taken more seriously worldwide if this is done bet your house on it.